Tangerines
by wallflower1
Summary: Topher admits to himself, very literally, what's really going on between himself and the good doctor. T/C UST


Tangerines

Spoilers: Echos, True Believer, Haunted, Brier Rose and Omega.

Summery:Topher admits to himself (literally) what's really going on between himself and the good doctor.

AN:I wrote this in August of 2009, which means I'm pretty sure I'm the first fanfic writer to write about Inprinted!Topher. Its like being Jossed in reverse.

* * *

I'm going to be real honest. That's the whole point, yeah? The unvarnished truth of the matter, though considering who's involved--

Right. I'm not stalling. The whole thing with me and Dr. Saunders—Claire—started when she was Whiskey.

No. NO. Nothing so—crass. I'm not that guy touching Actives when there all active-y. Creepy. my first year here, Adelle put the Dollhouse on hiatus. I, of course, had diagnostics to do, so boss lady let me program the newest Active to keep me company.

You could say this was the beginning of Claire Saunders. Not that she was a doctor then. Her name was Claire, though. We hung out and talking about how great Red Dwarf was and how lame the DEFCON conference is.

She loved me. Not in take-me-now-big-boy kind of love, but, you know, a BFF for life kind of love.

And she smelled like tangerines. Which was weird, because the soap and stuff all the Actives use smells the same, a kind of clean, aloe vera kind of scent. Claire absconded from the kitchen with a bunch and ate them all weekend. I donno, she would sweep her hands through her hair and her hair would smell like tangerines.

This, of course, was pre-Alpha.

The Saunders job was a rush, I admit. With half of my staff slashed up and my equipment working at less then one hundred percent, I'm still amazed she came out so well. The imprint itself was a combination of the original Dr. Saunders and--

Right, tangent. U-turn back to the point. Post-Alpha, Dr. Claire Saunders, was our live-in doctor. Had to admit, I liked her a whole lot more then the original Dr. Saunders, but she didn't particularly like me. She didn't particularly like anyone; a kind of side effect prioritizing the Actives above everything else.

She and I would have our little verbal spars, which didn't happen with anyone else.

The line was a little blurred, because she was technically an Active masquerading as my coworker, but I am nothing if not professional. Stop laughing. Wack-A-Mole promotes creativity in the work place. Stop it. Do you want me to continue?

When did it really start? Right around the time I noticed Victor's—man reaction—to Sierra. I've had some awkward moments in my life, but scanning hours of the Actives in the shower looking for sign of—reactions—in Victor right next to Dr. Saunders was definitely in the top ten.

Possibly top five.

She uses a different shampoo then the Actives and it smelled like tangerines and Christ, it freaked me out. Mostly because it was causing a little—reaction of my own.

Then the N-7316 debacle. Minus the Actives glitching and the possible threat of death, it was kind of an amazing trip. It felt like doing had opium and really good grass; alert but almost in a different dimension. Not that I'd ever done any of those things.

After we figured out that it was transmitted by touch, we gathered up all our people and brought them back. The Actives were done glitching, but Boyd and Dominic were still acting really funny. I mean, Boyd was mesmerized by the Actives doing Thai Chi while Dominic—oh you should have been there. Dominic came in rubbing his face on his sleeve and convinced Adelle to try it out. So I walk in, and Adelle is rubbing her face against Dominic's shoulder like a cat. It is, to this day, the singularly funniest thing I've ever seen. I wish there had been surveillance in her office then, so I could watch it over and over.

Claire didn't think it was funny. She was giving us shots of something to sober us up, but Dominic was trying to convince her how soft his suit was and Adelle was getting crumbs everywhere when it occurred to me how beautiful the slope of Claire's nose was. It's a prefect curve, like her face was a mountain peak and her hair a wild forest.

Yes, that was probably the N-7316 talking, but you didn't see the look she gave me when I said that. A sort of calculated look. At least it wasn't a dismissal. Then Dominic had to ruin it by telling me what a pussy thing to say and Adelle smacked him, which lead to an epic slap fight between them until the shot kicked in.

They leave in a hurry, then its my turn, where I imagine the scars on her face are little trails on the mountain of her face. No, I don't say it out loud, when I sober up, I practically run back to my office.

The whole time—still not wearing pants.

After this incident, which, everyone involved tried to forget happened, I notice that me and the good doctor's rapport changed. A little smile here, a wave there. You know, small stuff. I considered making her dinner.

Ok, I considered going down to the kitchens and bringing her dinner. Dominic would never approve of such workplace fraternizing, but Boyd was a whole different animal, so I wasn't too worried.

Then Alpha came back. If this were a movie, there would've been a dramatic orchestra swell, something ominous with lots of strings and a piano solo.

Enter badness here. Thankfully, no one ended up dead this time. Though, Victor looks like Dark Night's Joker and we got this new guy who I hate, but most importantly: the doctor—Claire—knows.

She knows, and she hates me for it. What was I suppose to do?

It's my fault. I used some of my Claire imprint for the Dr. Saunders imprint. That's why she knows so much about computer programming.

Anyway, thanks for listening to me. Those? Just some tangerines from the kitchen, I'm going to take them over to Claire, apologize and come clean about, you know, everything.

Now if you could lay down, your treatment will only take a moment.


End file.
